NEWMARKET — Christian Hawkins was two points shy of 1,000 for his career, but he wasn’t about to wow the home crowd with a clinching 3-pointer.

No, he was going to attack the rim, take the contact and cash in at the free-throw line — the kind of aggressive play that has defined his senior season.

Turning in one more stellar performance, Hawkins reached his milestone with 22 points and the second-seeded Newmarket High School boys basketball team rolled to a 60-19 win over No. 15 Woodsville in Tuesday’s first round of the Division IV tournament.

The Mules (17-2) will host Seacoast rival Epping (13-5) in the quarterfinals on Friday night. The seventh-seeded Blue Devils advanced with a 48-40 win over No. 10 Sunapee.

Hawkins became the 11th player in school history to score 1,000 points and the first since his older brother, Curtis Williams, did it in 2009. Focusing on shot selection and increasing his trips to the line, he’s scored 477 points in 21 games this season to get there.

“I was anticipating trying to score that,” Hawkins said of the big number. “I calculated it, went through all the numbers and all of that. I had confidence in myself. I did a lot of work this summer. I knew I was going to get it, it was just a matter of getting it off my back.”

Hawkins pulled within three points of his goal early in the fourth quarter, when he buried a 3-pointer a few steps in front of the roaring student section.

His last three points came off two separate trips to the foul line, each after aggressive drives to the paint.

“We talked in the offseason about how we thought he left a lot of points on the table by not attacking the rim,” Newmarket coach Jamie Hayes said. “He was too passive. He settled for the three a lot. He doesn’t do that anymore.

“He almost has 100 points just this season from the foul line. He’s got more from the foul line than some guys get in a season.”

Woodsville threw double teams at Hawkins from the onset, and that opened up center Josh Eisfeller for a big night. The senior scored 12 of his game-high 24 points in the first half and the Mules led 33-13 at halftime.

The Engineers got eight points from Joe Abrahansen and closed their season at 4-15.

“I think everything revolves around Hawkins,” Woodsville coach Jamie Walker said. “So we tried to keep him out of the paint and know where he was at all times. I thought (Eisfeller) did a good job of getting good post position and scored for them early, and that kind of threw us a little bit.”

Hawkins was held without a point until the closing seconds of the first quarter, when he stole the ball underneath Woodsville’s basket and converted easily. He was warmed up by the end of the second quarter, drilling back-to-back 3-pointers to pull 10 points shy of 1,000 at the half.

“The first couple shots didn’t go down,” Hawkins said. “I wasn’t really trying to force it. I was trying to let the game come to me, go with the flow and let it come in the end.”

It came after a sloppy third quarter in which Hawkins scored four of Newmarket’s six points. On the other end of the floor, the Mules limited Woodsville to just six points combined in the second half and closed the game with a 21-3 fourth quarter.

That gave Hawkins plenty of time to savior his moment.

“He’s a great player,” said Eisfeller, a high school teammate for four seasons. “He’s fun to play with. He can shoot, he can drive to the hoop, he can score it — he can do everything.”